What Is An Angel Investor?
Angels, also known as "seed" investors, are wealthy investors who invest their own money into startups in the initial stages of their development and receive an ownership stake. According to Angel Capital Association, Angel investors can contribute as much as 90% of equity that startups raise (excluding family and friends), the largest professional development group for angel investors worldwide. Entrepreneurs depend on the help of angel investors to start their businesses off the start.
Angel investors may be successful entrepreneurs and have experience or expertise in the business they invest in. They could guide networking, knowledge, and guidance to the company's startup and investing capital. Apart from fostering startups and generating innovative business concepts, angel investors seek to see their investment increase and yield a significant return over time. They will monitor the business's operations and be involved in decision-making to ensure that the money is being used responsibly.
How Does It Work
In general, angel investors need to comply with the Securities Exchange Commission's (SEC) criteria for accredited investors. They should each have an asset worth $1 million and have an annual income of $200,000 (or $300,000 per year with a spouse). Angel investors give you money. You then sell them equity within the company and file the raise to the SEC. Angel investments generally cost about 600,000 dollars. A majority of investments also involve several investors due to the plethora of angel organizations.
How Do You Become An Angel Investor?
Make Sure You're Qualified
Usually, meeting the requirements required to be an accredited investor is the requirement to become an angel investor. This means that your earnings income has to be at least $200,000 or greater in the past two years ($300,000 with a spouse), or your net worth, whether on its own or in conjunction with a spouse, must exceed $1 million of the form of investable assets. Why is this? Angel investments are regarded as high-risk and accredited investors are more likely to be able financially to deal with any loss that might occur. Many startups could get financing exclusively from accredited investors; however, some may accept non-accredited investors.
Find Out How to Locate Deals
Many angel investors have a reputable network of entrepreneurs and startup founders in their field of competence. Because they are frequently in contact with these people, they are often informed about new ventures and find deals worth considering. When an experienced investment banker decides that they want to invest in an idea, they could create and manage an angel syndicate in which an angel investor group can fund a particular deal. Suppose you're not connected to such networks. In that case, you may connect with an entrepreneur directly when you find a business with a unique idea for a business you'd like to investigate and possibly invest in.
Another method to locate deals is to be part of an angel group. This gives you access to the community of angel investors who invest and evaluate startups together. An Angel Capital Association's members directory will help you find an angel group to join, and the website provides details on how you can start your angel investment group. Many other organizations like Funding Post, AngelList, MicroVentures, and Angelsoft present a variety of options for angel investments. When you've found an investment opportunity, you'll have to conduct due diligence before discussing the amount of your capital investment and the proportionate share of ownership in the company.
The Reason to Consider Angel Investing
In most investments, the greater risk usually means greater potential returns. Angel investors have to take the risk-taking on high risks; they look for high returns. If their investment is successful, they could make 100 times the amount they invested initially, or more, as per the Corporate Finance Institute, a provider of online financial education and certificates.
Diversification of portfolios is another reason that angel investing could be attractive. At an early stage, the investment in private companies is a different risk-return trade-off from traditional investments in bonds and stocks. Angel investors, particularly individuals who run their businesses, might be interested in the latest industry trends and would like to assist companies with ideas that they are comfortable with and hope they can see their ideas come to reality.
Advantages of Angel Groups
Even though attending quarterly or monthly meetings could appear like much effort, there are significant reasons that team-based approaches are very popular with angel investors. The majority of startups are looking for more money than one investor can invest, often more than $1 million. When you split that ownership stake between several investors, one may need to invest about $25,000 to $50,000 for one deal.
Investors who collaborate can share the enormous due diligence that every significant investment needs. In addition to being a time-saver, collaboration lets the funders benefit from each other's experiences and know-how. Whether to make a bet on a company remains the individual investor's decision; however, by doing this, potential investors can get advice from others within the group before they decide whether to participate.
